By Chinmay Narang

Privatisation of public banks is finally here and some experts say it could not be timed any better than this. Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman during the budget presentation mentioned that Government will divest its stake in 2 PSBs. While the FM did not disclose the names of these 2 PSBs, but the experts and the Stock Market did not fail to make their speculations known to the public. Shares of Bank of Baroda and Punjab National bank rose by nearly 10% after the announcement depicting the likeliness of these 2 PSBs being “the chosen ones”.

The announcement also acted as a fuel to the fire like ongoing debate revolving Government’s strategic Disinvestment plan. Bank Employee Unions and the opposition has strongly opposed the motion of PSBs going into the hands of private players. Their main argument being hindrance in process of welfare of public and employees of these banks. But this does not change the fact that years of capital injections and change in Government policies failed to change the financial position of these banks significantly. Even after merging 10 PSU banks into 4, much did not change in the financial statements of the banks. But the Government seems positive about privatisation step. Now, only time can tell if Privatisation is a bitter pill that cures or a bitter pill with bitter results.